KS3 Music scheme of work for year 7 term 1 'Building our Music Community'

The following resource is a complete unit of work commissioned by the David Ross Education Trust and written in collaboration with Simon Toyne for the DRET Music team.

Learn more about the DRET Music Way here.

Yr 7 term 1: Building our Music Community

This is a foundation unit. Its core purpose is to enable students to recognise that they are musicians, regardless of their starting point. It’s also about building students’ confidence as musicians, developing trust within the class and encouraging everyone to become part of the wider musical life of the school.

The unit begins with rhythm and pitch games – designed to engage musical thinking and make connections between the physical act of making music and being part of an ensemble, through pulse, pattern and texture.

Performing and responding immediately engages students in thinking about their voice, leading to the development of singing technique through unison and part songs. The unit also provides students with a working understanding of the keyboard - not to achieve fluency in performance, but to provide them with a tool, other than their voice, for manipulating sound and applying conceptual knowledge.

The scheme encourages students to think about what they are doing and why, to understand that it’s ok to take musical risks and get things wrong, dare to take the lead, but also pull together as part of a team.

The development of musical understanding is explored using a range of musical styles and traditions to show students that we treat all musics as equals.

Students learn how to hear like musicians, how engaged analytical listening differs from passive surface listening, and the richness that brings to our lives as we develop our understanding of ‘how music works’.

Unlike the other units in this KS3 curriculum, there is no ‘ladder’ system for the second half of the term. If you need to report on progress or attainment in the first term, there’s plenty of stuff here to measure solo and ensemble performing, and analytical listening.

Repertoire:

• ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ composed by Wallace Willis
• ‘I wanna sing, sing, sing’ from Sing For Pleasure arr. of Three Traditional Spirituals
• ‘When the Saints’ composed by James M. Black
• ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ composed by Solomon Linda
• ‘Wimoweh’ arr. VoicePlay
• ‘Jingle Bells’ composed by James Lord Pierpont
• ‘Hark the Herald’ melody composed by Mendelssohn, lyrics by John Wesley
• ‘Hark the Herald’ arr. Pentatonix
• ‘Hark the Herald’ arr. Junior Garr, Niiella Dankwah-Coffie, Marsha B Morrison

Teaching slides:

KS3 Music scheme of work for year 7 term 1 'Building our Music Community'

Teacher notes:

KS3 Music scheme of work for year 7 term 1 'Building our Music Community'

Assessment:

A summative listening test to accompany this unit can be found here:

Wider listening playlist:

Front cover by Ben Stern on Unsplash